the 15,000 p. follower. a happy birthday on a pumpkin doughnut for clinton. watch tonight bret baier's special on benghazi and the investigation. captioned by closed captioning services, inc. lass. with nine days until the election, obama and romney pull out all of the stops. the swing state showdown as the candidates criss-cross the country. we'll discuss where the race stands and what issues matter most with senators from the states that will decide this election. republicans rob portman of ohio and ron johnson of wisconsin. democrats mark warner of virginia and mark udall of colorado. then, how does the electoral map look going into the last full week of the campaign? we will ask our sunday panel to handicap where this race will be won and lost. and from the final debate to around the clock rallies we are

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in the home stretch on the trail. all right now on "fox news sunday." >> chris: and h hello again from fox news in washington. we'll get to our coverage of the presidential race in a moment. but first that huge storm that is bearing down on the east coast threatening millions as well as disrupting campaign schedules. here is the latest on the storm from the fox news extreme weather center in new york. chris, we are looking at a storm likely that most of us on the east coast have never lived through. still a hurricane right here across area of the atlantic that is going to interact with a storm pulling offshore and going to cause an intense storm the largest probably ever to impact area of the mid atlantic into the northeast. the wind field is massive and it extends all the way into towards parts of wisconsin and illinois by the time we get to tuesday. we could be seeing winds 50 to 60 miles an hour in chicago. so far away from the land. wind advisories posted all up

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and down the eastern seaboard. there will not be hurricane warnings issued because it will transition into a nor'easter but expect the results to be he just the same. areas across the northeast dealing with this storm starting tonight all the way through the day on wednesday. >> chris: the latest on sandy from our extreme weather center. now, the campaign. with president obama and governor romney headed into the final week, we want to track where the race stands with senators from four key swing states. republican rob portman of ohio who played president obama in romney's debate prep. 18 electoral votes in play in a state obama won in '08 by 4.6 points and now leading by 2.3 points in the the latest realclearpolitics average of recent polls. republican ron johnson of wisconsin, ten electoral votes at stake. obama won by almost 14 points last time and now leading by 2.3. democrat mark warner of

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virginia. obama won its 13 elector aral votes by 6 points is four years ago but now tied with romney and democrat mark udall of colorado. obama won the nine electoral votes last time by nine points. the race there now dead even. senator portman let's start with the state that most people think may decide this race and that is ohio. the obama camp says they have a big edge in early voting in the state and also note that they have 137 campaign offices around the country while the romney camp has only 39. >> well, chris first of all, you mentioned the real clear poll techs average in ohio being 2.3% in president obama's favor. as of this morning it is 1.9% actually and that is because the polls are closing. the latest poll was this morning an ohio poll by the ohio newspapers showing the race is a dead heat and that s what i feel. i also feel like the momentum is on our side. i have been at six of the rallies over the last week.

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i have also been at about a dozen victory centers around the state and the energy and enthusiasm is on our side this year. it is interesting to watch but look we were down probably 5 to 10 points before the debates. after the debates we are about dead even and moving our way. >> chris: senator warner your state of virginia is right in the path of that huge storm. if you lose power and you could lose it for days could that have an effect on early voting and even have an effect on election day? >> well, chris, the governor already declared a state of emergency. i think we don't have as extensive an early voting in virginia as other states. i actually, though, think in terms of how the president looks it looks quite good. the washington post came out with a poll that had the president above that magic 50% mark. four points up. he had a great rally just the other day in richmond. i was with him. 15,000 people strong. probably his strongest rally in virginia to date. the storm will three a little

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bit of havoc into the race. i was supposed to be with the president and president clinton on monday. that rally has been canceled. i think virginians are ready to go to the polls and i think the president will carry virginia and just as four years ago when virginia was the state that put the president over the edge in terms of winning we hope to claim that title again this year. >> chris: senator johnson let's turn to wisconsin which hasn't gone for a republican since ronald reagan back in 1984. how much do you think that romney will be helped by the big organization that governor scott walker had to build to hold off the recall vote just last june? >> most definitely helpful. we have a strong ground game here and it is is interesting that the most recent ra rasmusn poll was dead even, 49-49. governor romney garnered 51% of the votes versus president obama 41 and 48. what is interesting is i travel around the victory centers particularly yesterday the issue of benghazi is bubbling

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up. people are demanding answers from the administration. i think that will have a big impact here in the state of wisconsin. >> chris: we will get to benghazi later in our discussion. senator udall i was surprised to learn close to 80% of voters in your state will have voted before election day. the romney camp says they are winning in absentee requests and early he voting and also swinging the suburbs around denver that went for obama four years ago. >> good morning, chris. we have a great ground game here in colorado. you're right, about 80% of the votes will be cast before election day but in the end coloradans will go for a president who has overseen slow to but steady economic growth. unemployment levels below 8%. the coloradans look for a leader who says what he means and means what he says. so governor romney has three problems here in colorado. we don't know he whether it is moderate met or me too mitt or severely conservative mitt that

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will serve as the president. he has been particularly unfriendly to hispanics and latinos and women in this state are prochoice and want to make their own healthcare decisions and the republican party said to women we know what is best for you and we don't want you to make your own decisions. >> chris: you gave us a lot to chew on. let's start with the economy which i think everyone agrees is still the number one concern for voters. senator johnson, in wisconsin, the unemployment rate is now nationally down to 7.8%. gdp growth in the third quarter rose from 1.3 about percent in the second quarter to 2.0. it is still a weak recovery, senator. but aren't the president's policies starting to turn things around? >> we have had an incredibly diapid just armiger recovery and the fact that gdp rose 2% all you can say about that is it is less bad news. what happened in wisconsin is after the first debate the very

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false caricature that president obama spent hundreds of millions of dollars portraying governor romney was utter early shattered. when wisconsinites saw he was a man of integrity and intelligence and had a plan unlike president obama who has no proposals to save either social security or medicare or unlike the democrats in the senate who haven't passed a budget in three years. they know paul ryan somebody with the courage to put forward real proposals. >> chris: let me talk about the economic recovery weak as it is in historical terms. the fact is even though unemployment is down to 7.8%, no president has been reelected with unemployment this high since fdr back in 1940. no president reelected with growth this low since they started tracking gdp back in 1930. those are strong historical head winds. >> i think we need to also look where we were and where we have come. we all remember how bad things

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were four years ago. losing 800,000 jobs a month. at net positive 5 million plus jobs. steady job growth increases the gdp numbers. i would like to see them higher. compare america to the rest of the world we are the one shining spot in the whole world. look at us compared to europe, china, india. i do think we he need to deal with the budget issues which i know my colleagues would agree with as well in terms of not going over the fiscal cliff. i would echo what senator udall said. we don't really know what governor romney's plan is. the budget plan that he lays out would actually cut 75% of all investments in education and r & d and infrastructure and that is not a way to grow an economy going forward. and when we look more specifically at virginia we are down at about 5.8. 5.9% unemployment. we recovered quicker than other states and one of the reasons

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why i think the president is going to carry virginia. >> chris: senator udall we will get to romney's plan in a moment. let's talk, first of all, about obama's plan because this week out on the campaign trail he was brandishing and we can see it right here the gloss isy brochure that he said is his agenda for the next four years and states goals like create 1 million manufacturing jobs by 2016 and cut net oil imports in half by 2020. but senator udall, these are recycled targets from four years atha ago that he was unao achieve in his first term. >> we made a lot of progress too reaching those goals and if you look at what the president accomplished we are moving forward and my concern and what i hear from coloradans is that a president romney would go back to the policies of the bush administration which were pretty simply cut taxes, cut regulations and run up the debt. that isn't going to work.

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president obama is, of course, making the case over this last nine days about what he would do if he is handed a second term. and he would build on the successes of the last four years. we strapped the president in to an airplane that was heading to the ground at mach speed and he now righted the airplane and we he have some lift and heading in the right direction. he deserves a second term. >> senator portman, let me have you weigh in both on this obama agenda for a second term and his record and also questions about romney's record and whether it is simply return to the policies of george w. bush. >> chris, it is pretty simple why governor romney s doing so much better in ohio. people are focused on the economy and jobs and mitt romney has got a plan that is progrowth, projobs to turn this thing around and president obama doesn't. when people look at the last four years they are disappointed. they must be. we are living through the weakest economic recovery since the great depression. there are 22 million americans struggling to find work.

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3.5 million more women in poverty. take home pay has gone down 4300 bucks per family on average. we are headed in the wrong direction. president obama, your' right he has a glossy new you brochure. i looked at that brochure and i played this role of obama during debate prep and it is more of the same. you can argue that we need to do more of the same but it hasn't worked and it hasn't worked by president obama's own when he surements. he said unemployment would be 50% lower today than it is if we just passed the stimulus package. he said economic growth would be two thirds higher than it actually is. it hants worked. the one thing he does have in the new proposal is to raise taxes on about a million small businesses including a lot here in ohio. that will result according to a study by the national federation of independent businesses which a 700,000 job loss which we can't afford. governor romney instead has pro posed progrowth policies including a tax reform proposal

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that lowers the rate of taxation but makes the tax code far more efficient and simplifies it and that will result in 7 million new jobs over the next ten years. that is the choice people have. in ohio they are choosing mitt thusy and that is where aenthusiasm is. >> the two campaigns have been battling for months over women and the polls seem to indicate that in fact romney has succeeded to at least some degree depending on the poll in closing the gender gap when it comes to women preferring obama over him. this week indiana republican senate candidate richard murdoch talked about having no exceptions at all in the case of abortion. let's take a look. >> life is a gift from god and i think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that it is something that god intended to happen. >> senator johnson, mitt romney disavowed richard mourdock's

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comments and he tried to walk them back. it does bring up the bigger are question. why should a woman who believes in freedom of choice when it comes to abortion why should we vote for are mitt romney who says he would like to see roe versus wade overturned and plans to cut off all federal funding for planned parenthood? >> i had one person talk about the abortion issue during the entire campaign. what people in wisconsin what is moving the needle here is they recognize mitt romney is an individual who when faced with a legislature controlled 85% by democrats was actually able to work with the democrats. look at his record versus president obama who has been totally unable to work with divided government in washington, d.c. >> chris: on the question of abortion, though, isn't that -- >> it is just -- >> chris: go ahead. >> i mane chris it is not even an issue here in wisconsin. it doesn't even move the radar at all. what people are concerned about like i said yesterday it was unbelievable how many people

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came up to me demanding answers on benghazi. i had a father of a marine a young marine saying listen, i want to know who commander in chief is and what orders he gave and what didn't he give. that is the question on the table for the last ten days is is what happened in benghazi. abortion doesn't even show up. >> chris: i promise we will get to benghazi in a moment. first i do want to give senator warner a chance to talk about the women's issue on the one hand obviously you you have a lot of women who are liberal on social issues who are not happy with mitt romney. on the other hand this recession by all standards. number of women who have lost jobs and gone into poverty has hit women even harder than men. >> well, chris, i continue to find it remarkable whether it is this republican senate candidate in indiana, the republican senate candidate in missouri who somehow are making these just outrageous comments about rape. the fact is i know in virginia

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one of the why women are supporting the president so strongly is our state legislature made virginia frankly a laughingstock with some of its intrusive ultrasound type of procedures they were proposing until the governor had to sort of walk them back. people are afraid when you are turning the keys over some of these guys that seem so disconnected. this it about economic issues and women's ability to have is a child and family medical leave. it is about making sure that women's healthcare issues are related to women's ability to be active in the workforce. somehow saying that these are not issues of importance, i can only speak to the folks that i'm dealing with in virginia, both women and men want to make sure that we keep those elected officials kind of out of these personal decisions and unfortunately what i my understanding at least the romney ryan republican platform is exactly the same position that mr. mourdock and akin and

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some of the other candidates put forward and again one of the reasons why you are continuing to see at least in virginia a wide -- >> chris: let me interrupt briefly to say that the romney position is that he would allow exceptions in the case of rape, incest and the life of the woman. >> but hasn't mr. ryan, though, voted consistently. >> chris he has taken the position of mr. romney which is to allow those exceptions. if i may -- >> mr. ryan's voting record is one -- >> chris: joe biden didn't agree with a lot of barack obama's positions but you listen to the guy in the top job. >> but mr. ryan has flipped his positions now. i guess that is news. >> chris: no, actually had it for some period of time. let's move on to libya if we can and the continuing controversy over the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi that killed four americans. we learned friday that cia operators on the ground repeatedly requested military

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backup and were refused and that they also asked to be able to go from the annex where they were over to the consulate to h help out there and were refused. and this week the father of one of the navy seals charlie woods who is the father of slain former navy seal tyrone woods spoke out on it. let's take a look at what he had to say. >> my son violated his orders in order to protect the lives of at least 30 people. he risked his life to be here. i wish that the leadership in the white house had that same level of moral courage and pure heroism that my son displayed with his life. >> senator udall you are on the senate armed services committee and intelligence committee. how do you answer critics who say that the obama administration has bungled this before, during and after the attack? >> chris, we share the grief that mr. woods exhibited in that segment.

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let me say this. we are going to get to the bottom of this. the intelligence committee is going to hold hearings when we return after the election. the state department has its own investigation underway. any impartial observer who looks at what happened in benghazi would have to say this situation has been politicized. governor romney himself realizes that his actions and his reaction was unbecoming for a potential commander in chief. he has backed off those comments and that point of view in the debate this last week benghazi and libya wasn't even raised when governor romney had a chance to discuss it. we ought to be acting in the spirit of ambassador stevens and pulling together. after 9/11 and this was a terrorist attack in libya. >> chris: senator wait, wait. >> get to the bottom of what happened. >> chris: it is a legitimate issue to discuss before an election when four americans were killed and there were questions of intelligence before and after the attack, is it not? >> it is a legitimate issue but

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every story leads to political commentary and trying to point fingers. after 9/11 we came together and there were a lot of questions that had to be answered. let's remember what ambassador stevens was trying to do and stand together because the middle east is crucial. we need to be tough you there but we need to be smart and engaged. this discussion has been politicized. it hasn't been helpful and hasn't helped us get to the bottom of what happened. >> chris: there were drones flying over benghazi at the time of the attack. were the drones armed? >> we are going to find that out. as you you mentioned i you sit on the the intelligence chitee committee and so does senator warner. information if appropriate will be revealed. >> chris: do you know whether they were armed, sir. >> i can't comment on that at this point in time, chris. >> chris: you would agree if it they were armed they could have without as leon panetta said sending more troops into harm's

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way could have been used to try to break up the attack? >> the drone assets that we have are remarkable and they saved the lives of many americans. i look forward to discussing this with you further when i have the information and am able to share it with you. >> chris: senator portman as another member of the armed services committee what do you make of secretary of defense panetta who says look in terms of the criticism that we didn't send in more troops that you don't put more troops in harm's way when you don't have intelligence on the ground as to what they are getting into. >> i am a member of the armed services committee and i appreciate what mark udall said about not politicizing this. this is about a huge international security issue you that affects all of us and there was a shocking breakdown operationally not to have the security there in the first place and then not to respond to these guys in their pleas for help for seven hours during a fire fight is unbelievable

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and now we are hearing that the president of the united states based on his own words issued a directive saying that he wanted to be sure those people on the ground were safe and getting what they needed. it didn't happen. this means either that the president's order was not followed. which would be a breakdown in terms of the white house procedure. or, it means the order wasn't issued. we need to find out about this. it is not about politics. it is a very serious situation. after the fact, of course, there has also been a lot o of confusion about what happened, why it happened. i think bottom line, chris, it shows a lack of leadership and a policy in disarray and i think it is perfectly appropriate to ask these questions. is as you know, is senator mccain and i sent a letter more than two weeks guy to secretary panetta asking for answers and we haven't heard anything. we sent another letter yesterday with the additional information we are hearing directly from the president about the order that he issued. why wasn't it followed? this makes no sense.

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>> chris: senator, we have a couple of minutes left and i want you and senator johnson to also weigh in. a skeptic would say this investigation is going to happen after election day but we won't know the facts when people have to go vote. >> well, chris, again as a member of the intelligence committee i think one of the things that we ought to not be doing is getting into some of these issues candidly that as echoing what senator udall said about drone assets and some of the other things. some of the reports that even your network has issued nye understanding that the administration has categorically denied. i have an enormous amount of faith in the process that we will take on to look at this. and an enormous amount of faith in former deputy head of the state department tom pickering and former chiefs of staff. find out what happened and what

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the timelines are and if there were mistakes made get those exposed so they would never happen again. the four americans whose lives were killed and i think the most appropriate thing here is let's have the information and investigate it in a proper anda appropriate way the same way the state department has launched previous investigations whenever members of the personnel are killed abroad. >> chris: just ask you one direct question about the drones. i can understand how it would be politically embarrassing for the administration if it turns out the drones were armed and weapons not fired when the u.s. americans were under attack for 7 hours. i can't understand how it would give up valuable intelligence. can you tell me directly were the drones armed or not that were flying over benghazi and were recording it in real time? >> chris, this member of the senate intelligence committee is not going to make any comments on drones on the record, off-the-record or

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anywhere else. >> chris: senator johnson you have a minute for the final word. >> well, chris, the american people have the right to know and that is what they are demanding here in wisconsin. let's face it. what was the president doing during the seven hours? did he give that directive or didn't he? did leon panetta directly defy his directive? what happened. who sent out. who sent ambassador rice out five days later when they knew it was is a terrorist attack. that it was preplanned. sent her out on the sunday talk shows to say in fact this was is a spontaneous reaction to, of course, the video. the administration purpose early misled the american people for weeks. this president misled the american people for weeks and i think the american people have the right to know. it was either misleading or income pa tense. the person american people have the right to know. >> thank you all for coming in today and giving us your assessment of where the race stands in the key swing states.

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we will see how the world turns in the next nine days. thanks again. >> thanks, chris. >> thanks, chris. >> have a great day. >> chris: we go into the electoral map in depth. crunch the numbers with the sunday panel.

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he is out there with a campaign right now which is out of ideas and out of excuses and that s chi i why in november yl make sure he is out of office. >> i don't want your vote because of what i have done, i want you vote because of what i'm going to do. >> chris: president obama and mitt romney trying to rally supporters as we approach the final week of this long

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campaign. and it is time for the sunday group. brit hume fox news senior political analyst. democratic strategist joe trippi. karl rove founder of american cross roads and fox news political analyst juan williams. start with karl rove's political map from last week. take a look at it. very pretty i must say. states solid or leading obama in various shades of blue with 237 electoral votes. states solid or leaning romney in shades of red and pink with 206 electoral votes and 8 tossup in yellow with 95 electoral votes. you need 170 to win the presidency. now, look at another chart from last monday and this showed all of the states and. so leaning obama and romney. any movement in the last week? >> well, we will know tomorrow night with our electoral college map. right now we are at a point in

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the campaign where there is very little movement. the momentum was on romney's side but the closer you you get to the end one of two scenarios happens. either 1980 and rapid movement in one candidate's direction or movement towards romney but slowing simply because we are getting down to a thin group of people left undecided. >> chris: any sense of big movement in any of these states? >> at this point polls are less important than looking at the early voting numbers. the actual people voting. let's take for example, ohio. in ohio, 109,000 fewer democrats applied for absentee ballot as of this point. they have until next saturday to do it. most people applied by now. 109,000 fewer democrats than four years ago. 4,000 more republicans than four years ago already. the shift there of maybe 120 to 130,000 absentee ballots towards republican in a state won by the democrats. >> let me ask you a question which i asked portman and he didn't answer.

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the obama camp brags they have 137 field offices around the state of ohio. the romney camp has 39. >> a lot of those they simply call the lucas county democratic head quarters. head quarters in virtually every one of the 88 counties in hide. what matters is volunteers. the 2004 ohio bush campaign was unbelievable. they busted the metrics for the 2004 campaign. yesterday the ohio victory chitee knocked on its two millionth door and made its 6 million pth comment. knocked on 3 million doors and made 7 million contacts by election day. >> any comments you want to make about karl's map or swing states? >> i'm struck by karl and i have been talking about the map since april and it is the same map. it has gone back and forth. i have been there we called ohio leaning obama. it never leaned romney. romney never had a lead in any

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of the polls in the entire year in ohio. part of the disadvantage romney has and part of the reason you have the head quarter numbers so big is because obama has been fighting for ohio for four years. i mean they have had a structure -- they never stood down their structure from four years ago and obama -- romney because of the primaries couldn't put as much focus on that. i think that is a disadvantage on election day. >> brit, there has clearly been movement in the polls both nationally and in the swing states towards romney especially since the first debate in early october. how do you read this race at this moment? >> well, let's assume that everyone is right that ohio is the lynchpin of the whole thing which i think is a reasonable support of the bishops position survivors position a supositios point. you have polls that show romney with a four or five or six-point lead. there will be another out tomorrow, the by partisan poll

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called the battleground poll which is a reliable poll that will show romney up five nationally. >> in the battleground states. >> no, the national poll. if the polls are generally correct it is difficult to imagine that ohio would be all that different. ohio has pretty closely tracked the national outcome for -- since about 1960. so it is certainly true and worth noting that mitt romney does not now lead in a single ohio poll. but i can't believe that that national poll wouldn't tell you you something about how iowa will go if the polls are, correct. >> chris: juan? >> i think the momentum stopped. obviously mitt romney had momentum after the first debate. is what we are looking at if you just say let's forget all of the complexity that we can hear from joe and karl, romney has never led in ohio. he has never led in nevada, wisconsin, iowa. never in none of the polls

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okay. what you get here is a situation where at the moment he is trying to perpetuate the momentum by coming on with this argument that he is moderate mitt. it is a little bit of trick or treat for the halloween season here. what is the real mitt. but he wants to be -- >> chris: sounds like an obama talking point. >> that is the drive he is making for the few voters that remain that he is not the guy that barack obama castigated as a hard hearted extremist. i think that is why paul ryan has disappeared from the map for the most part. you don't see paul ryan in a place like, ohio, or wisconsin. >> chris: what do you mean? he is in ohio. >> he was in cleveland last week. >> you will see him down in alabama and south carolina. one last -- >> one day for fund raising. >> please get out of here. >> he did' tend fundraisers and not campaign events. a minor fact. an inconvenient fact, juan. >> chris: he took a bus trip through ohio.

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romney is joining ryan in ohio. >> the key is the new voters and the turnout and you talk about contacts and all this. it is the new voters and the fact there are ten million new voters in the country mostly young people, blacks, hispanics. something hard to make up for. >> chris: assumes that they all vote. >> that is the thing. so far in the early voteing that karl was talking about, he talks about add registration forms. look at the results from early voting and they favor president obama because those folks have turned in -- >> no, they don't. this is an important point. if you look at ohio for example, 57% of the absentee ballot requests come from democrats who voted in none, one or two of the last reelections. 72% of the republican come from people who voted in none, one or two of the last elections. that is to say the democrats of cannibalizing the election day turnout. >> i'm saying the results are that right now on votes already cast obama is beating romney.

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>> he isn't. not in ohio. there are more republican absentee ballot requests than there are democrats. >> chris: time out. two questions. one, i want to talk about the disparity between the national polls which are leaning romney and some of the state polls that are leaning obama. is it possible that we are headed for another 2000 where you could have romney win the popular vote in this particular case and obama win the electoral vote? >> we could. i think it is a small chance because i think brit is right when you have if the margin is as big nationally as it appears in the national polls then you will have the state polls follow. we may have something else in play here, though. which is we are endowing all of these polls with the presix they don't have. take for example, ohio. there have been 21 polls since the first debate. in 16 of them, romney has led among in dependents by an average of 13 points. obama has led among independents in two and two polls they didn't break it out by republican, democrat or

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independent. it is hard to believe if romney is leading among republicans and by independents that he is not going to win. >> chris: one last question. you have the map like it is set in stone but you hear talk about the possibility there could be new states that come on. talk about pennsylvania and michigan and minnesota. could romney have a chance in any of these other states that we he had previously thought were pretty solid for obama? >> he bought television in minnesota but only minneapolis tv to hit the far western counties of wisconsin. i would say that we ought to watch and see what happens this next week in michigan and pennsylvania. >> chris: they could come into play? >> they lean obama but moved from obama to lean obama if there s a national trend as it appears to be since the first debate moving in romney's direction. >> chris: , ten seconds. >> i don't think those states are really in play. i think they can sucker romney budget economy in to spend time there but i you wouldn't do it if i were them. if they can win, ohio, or

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wisconsin the states up right now they have a much better shot atgeting there than hoping those states get into play. >> chris: it is like hearing cats here today. we will look at what issues will decide the race and the issues that will decide the race starting with the growing controversy over the terror attack in benghazi.

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basic principle is that you don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what is going on. >> to me that is not only coward issues but those people who made the decision and who knew about the decision and lied about it are murderers of my son. >> chris: dehe fence secretary panetta and char le charlie wos father of the former navy seal killed in the benghazi attack disagreeing over the decision not to provide military backup while the assault was is going on. and we are back with the panel. let's talk about the issues that may sway voters and start with libya.

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seveseveral developments this t week. we learned as you heard debated there that cia operatives on the ground asked for military backup and turned down several times while the attack was going on. we also found out that cia people on the ground reported that during the attack that a jihaddist group was taking responsibility, claiming responsibility for the attack. brit, what do you make of all this? especially in the context of the campaign? >> well, what i make of it is that is looks terrible even though i don't fully endorse the remarks of the grieving father there. i understand his grief. i lost a son my is self-but not in military combat. i don't think you can rightly accuse the officials in washington who made the decisions of murder. however, we don't know he enough now about how the decisions were made and when and by whom. leon panetta offered sort of a hint of an explanation that you

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don't send forces into harm's way. if you going to mount a rescue or military operation these things require a lot of planning. we don't know whether there were any plans on the shelf that they could have called on to do this. it doesn't explain the possibility that your questions to the earlier panel raised which is were the drones armed. was the drone armed. could we have gotten air support in that way? my sense is the president made this call. it makes sense that he would. that it would be a big enough deal that would have to go to him. and the decision not to go for whatever reason was made by him. but he won't tell us. and no one else seems willing to tell us. i think it is therefore likely that the answer is something that it worries the white house would hurt politically. >> chris: it was interesting. in our conversation with the four senators, juan, you could see the two republicans johnson and portman really trying to make an issue of this.

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the president needs to tell us what he knew, what he did, particularly during the attack. do you think they can make that stick as a campaign issue in the last week? >> they are certainly treeing to. there is no intervening event that would really shift the dynamics of the race at this point and they are are looking to this incident which is a tragedy. this is a fox news alert. i'm gregg jarrett in new york. president obama set to give an update on hurricane sandy. the president visited the national coordination center where fema the federal emergency management agency is deploying the coordination of federal resources and teams to all of the states up and down the east coast as you can see on the map. this ha as responders prepare e hurricane sandy. the president being updated on the ongoing efforts to support local preparedness efforts in potentially affected areas. we expect him to call the storm

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serious and big and slow moving. obviously safety and human life is the most important objective but the impact will not only be environmental, massive flooding, downed trees, damaged homes and businesses, lost power but political as well with only nine days left before the november 6 national elections there could be a direct impact on voting. here are the president's remarks. >> well, good afternoon, everybody. obviously all of us across the country are concerned about the potential impact of hurricane sandy. this is a serious and big storm. and my first message is to all people across the eastern seaboard and mid atlantic going north that you need to take this very seriously and follow the instructions of your state and local officials because they are going to be providing you with the best advice in terms of how to deal with the storm over the coming days.

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we just had an excellent meeting with the fema team here, the various agencies in charge including the department of defense and department of energy and others that are going to need to respond very quickly. under craig fugate's leadership here at fema we had a chance to talk to the regional officials as well and i just had a phone call with the governors of potentially impacted states as well as some of the major cities in the region. at this stage everybody is confident that the staging pro is 70s, the prepositioning of resources, commodities, equipment needed to respond to the storm are in place. but as craig has emphasized, this hasn't hit landfall yet so we don't yet know where it is going to hit, where we are going to see the biggest impacts and that is exactly why it is is so important for us to respond big and respond fast as local information starts coming in. i want to thank all of the

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members of the team for the outstanding work that they are are doing but the other thing that makes this storm unique is we anticipate it is going to be slow moving. that means that it may take a long time not only to clear but also to get for example the power companies back be in to clear trees and to put things back in place so that folks can start moving back home. so my main message to everybody involved is that we have to take this seriously, the federal government is working effectively with the state and local governments. it is going to be very important that populations in all of the impacted states take this seriously, listen to your state and local elected officials. my message to the governors as well as to the mayors is anything they need we will be there. and we aring. >> are going to cut through red tape and not get bogged down with a lot of rules we

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want to make sure we are anticipating and leaning forward into making sure we have is the best possible response into what is going be a big and messy system. again, thank you, everybody. craig, would you like to add something? >> again, as the president says it will come down to the public heeding the evacuation orders and taking protective measures. go to ready.gov to get information on how to protect them and their families. also check on your neighbors. it will be he a big storm and we need to be there for each other are. >> let me emphasize that again. ready.gov for the general public if you need to know how to respond. that is where you can get centralized information. craig's point is exactly right. in times like this one of the things that americans do is we pull together and help out one another. and so there may be elderly populations in our area. check on your neighbor and friend and make sure they are prepared. in we do we will get through this storm just fine.

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we have to make sure that we are vigilant and vigilant for a couple of days. don't anticipate just because the immediate storm has passd that we are not going to have potential problems in a lot of these communities going forward through the week. all right. thank you very much, everybody. >> thanks, guys. >> we don't anticipate that at this point but we have to take a look. >> president obama taking a tour of fema head quarters and getting an update on hurricane sandy which is headed north and is on course to meet a snowstorm and a cold front experts say the rare hybrid storm could cause havoc over 800 miles stretching from the east coast to the great lakes potentially threatening some 50 million people. tens of thousands being told to evacuate the coastal area of delaware, new jersey, connecticut and other vulnerable spots along the east coast. new york city shutting down its subways, buses, trains tonight.

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even broadway is closing and they are are closing schools tomorrow affecting 1.1 million students. mayor bloomberg in new york city also ordering the evacuation of even the low lying neighborhoods in the city including lower manhattan. airlines canceling thousands of flights. amtrak scaling back train service in the northeast corridor. forecasters expecting sandy to come ashore late tomorrow or early tuesday. if you have pictures including videotape or photographs of sandy send them to us at ureport @ fox news .com. but be sure to stay safe. stay with fox news for all of the latest information on sandy. i will be back at 4:00 p.m. eastern time and in just a moment after this commercial break back with chris wallacet and "fox news sunday." 50% annu. and everyone likes 50% more [ russian accent ] rubles. eh, eheh, eh, eh. [ brooklyn accent ] 50% more simoleons. [ western accent ] 50% more sawbucks.

>> chris: from a final debate on foreign policy to round the clock campaigning romney and obama are locked in a furious race to the finish. here is what it was like on the trail. >> the nature of our military has changed. we had these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. >> mr. president, america has not dictated to other nations. we have freed other nations from dictators. >> we witnessed a president who really has no record to run on. >> half the time i didn't know whether governor romney was there to debate barack obama or endorse barack obama. >> high, guys, how are you doing? >> last night and throughout this campaign i laid out a plan for jobs. and middle class security. >> his idea of growing the economy is raising taxes. does any one think raising taxes creates more jobs?

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>> i have a deal for the president. >> what is the thing with trump and you? it is like me and letterman. what has he got against you here? i don't get it. >> you know, this all dates back to when we were growing up together in kenya. >> yeah. >> and -- >> we are pulling an all nighter. >> no sleep. you notice my voice is getting a little horrs. >> we come too far to turn back now. >> this is a year with a big choice and the american people want to see big changes and together we can bring that kind of change, real change to our country. >> chris: and with the race so close you can count on the campaign getting even more intense in the last nine days. we will be right back with a final note.

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>>. >> chris: now this program note. next sunday on the final weekend before the election we'll focus on how each side plans to turn out supporters. our guests will be rich beeson political director of the romney campaign and top official from the obama team. that is it for today. have a immigrate week. we'll see from you election headquarters in new york next fox news sunday.